five-dollar bill worthless as wrapping paper but of value as a promise
to deliver the goods.




CHAPTER IV

AMERICANIZATION

I

"The Americanizing of Canada" is a phrase which has been much in vogue
with a section of the British press ever since the attempt to establish
reciprocity between the United States and the Dominion. It is a
question if the glib users of the phrase have the faintest idea what
they mean by it. It is a catchword. It sounds ominously deep as the
owl's wise but meaningless "too-whoo." English publicists who have
never been nearer Canada than a Dominion postage stamp wisely warn
Canada against the siren seductions of Columbia's republicanism.

If the phrase means that reciprocity might lead to annexation, Canada's
repudiation of reciprocity is sufficient disproof of the imputation.
If it means increased and increasing trade weaving a warp and woof of
international commerce--then--yes--there is an "Americanizing of
Canada" as there is a Canadianizing of the United States through
international traffic; but the users of the phrase should remember that
the country doing the largest trade of all countries with the United
States is Great Britain; and does one speak of the "Americanizing" of
Great Britain? If it means that in ten years two-fifths as many